Pakistani security forces have arrested a British Muslim believed to be wanted in connection with the July 7th London bombings, Pakistani intelligence sources said today. However, a minister denied he had been detained.
Several intelligence sources, who did not want to be identified, said Haroon Rashid Aswad was detained in the eastern city of Lahore earlier this week during a crackdown in militants in Pakistan that has seen more than 150 people detained.
"We have arrested Haroon Rashid from the house of Qari Fateh Mohammad from Sargodha three days ago... We strongly believe he has links with bombers," one security official told the Reuters news agency. Qari is a honorific title given to someone who recites the Koran.
But Information Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed denied security forces had arrested Aswad, although the intelligence sources stood by their earlier comments.
Pakistani security official
"We have arrested nobody called Haroon Rashid," the minister said. One of the intelligence sources said Aswad had been carrying a belt packed with explosives for a possible suicide attack, around one million rupees and a British passport.
He appears to be the unnamed militant reported captured on Monday and found with explosives and cash. Various media, including today's Asian Wall Street Journal, have reported that a search was still on for Aswad after his name was passed to Pakistani intelligence by British investigators.
The newspaper quoted unnamed sources as saying Aswad's name came up in the investigation based on information from the mobile phone of one of the London bombers.
It also said a man named Aswad Rashid Haroon was included in US intelligence databases as having ties to the al-Qaeda network. Speaking to BBC Radio, Pakistan's high commissioner to London, Maleeha Lodhi, declined to go into specifics when asked about the arrest, on the grounds that this could compromise the investigation.
"But certainly people are being questioned in Pakistan and we ourselves have renewed a crack down on extremism."